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Images in cardiology
In vivo visualisation of coronary artery development by high-resolution optical coherence tomography
  1. K Norozi,
  2. L Thrane,
  3. J Männer,
  4. F Pedersen,
  5. I Wolf,
  6. S Mottl-Link,
  7. H-P Meinzer,
  8. A Wessel,
  9. T M Yelbuz
  1. Yelbuz.Mesud{at}mh-hannover.de

https://doi.org/10.1136/hrt.2007.120147

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    Figure
    Ao, ascending aorta; LA, left atrium; LV, left ventricle; PA, pulmonary artery; RA, right atrium; RB, right brachiocephalic artery arising from the aorta ascendens; RV, right ventricle. Arrow in A shows the interventricular groove. Arrowheads indicate the course of the right coronary artery (RCA); small arrows, aortic valve cusps; star, aortic sinus. Bar (panels B and C)  = 100 μm. Bar (panels D and E)  = 600 μm.

    One of the most critical but poorly understood processes during cardiovascular development is the establishment of a functioning coronary artery (CA) system. We present here the first in vivo recordings of developing CAs obtained from the hearts of chick embryos at three critical stages of CA development (day 8 (video 1), day 9 (videos 2, 3 and 5) and day 10 (video 4)). Images were generated by high-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT). Panel A depicts the ventral view of a day 9 chick heart (stage of established CA connection with the aorta) in original size (small image at top) and with higher magnification on the right. The dashed line indicates the sagittal section plane for OCT scanning (panels B, D and E, respectively) and histology (panel C) to visualise the right coronary artery (RCA) stem arising from the ascending aorta. In vivo OCT recording with colour Doppler demonstrates first onset of blood flow in the RCA in diastole (yellow box), as shown in panel B. Panel C depicts a corresponding histological section and panel D an OCT image from volume scan data in day 9 chick hearts. Panel E demonstrates a three-dimensional reconstruction of the aorta with the arising RCA of the OCT volume scan data of the same heart shown in panel D.

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests: None.

    • Funding: This work was supported by a research grant of the Braukmann Wittenberg Heart Foundation to TMY, and by the Danish Research Agency (BIOPHOT framework program, grant No 26-02-0020).

    • KN and LT contributed equally to this work.

    • ▸ Additional videos are published online only at http://heart.bmj.com/content/vol94/issue2